Scattering and emission from inhomogeneous vegetation canopy by using 3D-VRT equation

To solve the 3D vector radiative transfer (3D-VRT) equation for spatially inhomogeneous scatter media and obtain high-order scattering and emission, the finite enclosure of the scatter media is first geometrically divided into many thin boxes, slicing the media in both the vertical and horizontal directions. The zero-th order emission of each thin box and an iterative approach of high-order radiative transfer, via the Mueller matrix VRT solution of all media boxes, are applied to derive high-order scattering and emission of the whole inhomogeneous scatter media. This approach presents a numerical method to obtain high-order scattering and emission of the 3D models for inhomogeneous scatter media such as a heterogeneous vegetation canopy and some scatter targets beneath the canopy.